Mistletoe Maybe
by marymin
Summary: Kano is surprised to find mistletoe among the apartment decorations. He is more surprised when Seto doesn't seem taken aback at all.


When Kano wandered into the main room, after waking up late on a Saturday morning, he found it deserted and surprisingly festive. When he'd come back late last night, he had avoided turning on lights so that he wouldn't wake anyone, and so he hadn't noticed the decorations that now adorned the walls. Paper chains in bright colors hung from corner to corner, and there was even a cheerful (if slightly lopsided) wreath on the inside of the door. Most surprising were the little clusters of greenery hanging from the ceiling, including over the doorway where Kano stood.

_Mistletoe, huh?_

Kano would never have expected something like that from Kido. It seemed like the sort of thing that would fluster her, to be caught under the mistletoe with anybody— but especially with him. Maybe Seto had put them up, with his usual boneheaded cheer.

Either way, the room looked totally different from how it usually did, and even though Kano hadn't been looking forward to Christmas all that much, he felt the corners of his mouth tug upwards with a smile. They really had put their all into it, and he could almost picture Kido directing Momo and Mary around the room with the determination of a general.

Hands on his hips, he glanced around with an impressed grin. It really was—

"Ah, Kano! Good morning!" A warm hand patted Kano's shoulder, and he didn't have to look to know who it was. Seto was the only person he knew who was that touchy feely, and who's voice carried such bright excitement all the time.

He glanced upwards, to double check that the mistletoe was still there and hadn't flown off, to make a fool out of him as soon as he spoke. Yep, there it was, bright green leaves and shiny red berries. Entirely unmissable.

He turned to Seto, eyebrows raised. "Guess we hafta kiss," he remarked dryly. He wasn't upset at all by the idea— mostly just amused. If Seto had been helping Kido decorate, surely he should know where the mistletoe was? It was just like Seto to forget. Kano made a note in his mind that if Seto was upset by the joke, he would let him off without having to do anything. No one would ever have to know.

Seto, for his part, hardly looked bothered by the idea. At Kano's words, his usual smile widened into a grin, and he nodded brightly. "Okay!"

So, maybe he did already know about the mistletoe after all. For some reason that threw Kano off a little, the idea that this might not be an accident, and he felt his cheeks grow warm.

He didn't have much time to think it over, though. Seto was reaching out to cup Kano's elbow in his hand, stepping forward to close the distance between them. It looked like he was really going through with it. Kano felt even more off kilter, and he cracked a nervous laugh, glancing up at him. It looked as though Seto had already been out and about today, probably doing more holiday things; he had a couple pine needles caught in his bangs, and the urge to reach up and brush them away was almost overwheleming. Kano resisted, though, and instead just rocked up on tiptoe to meet him when Seto leaned down for the kiss.

Kano wasn't sure what the guidelines were for a kiss beneath mistletoe. It might be that only a few seconds of contact was required, and he idly thought that it would be easy to pull away right now and call this a success. But instead he wound his arms around Seto's neck to steady himself, pleased by the warmth of Seto's hand finding its way to the small of his back. Seto seemed happy about it too, making a quiet noise of approval in the very back of his throat as he pulled him closer.

"What are you two doing?"

Kido's unimpressed voice cut through the haze that had managed to fall over his mind, and Kano jerked back in response, gasping in a mouthful of air that seemed very cold after the heat of the kiss. Seto didn't seem to want to let go of him, though, his arms around Kano's waist keeping him close, and that didn't give Kano much room for bringing his own arms back down.

Kido stood just a few feet away, arms crossed, squinting at them as if they represented an ancient puzzle. Kano fumbled to respond, but Seto got there first.

"Kissing," he replied cheerfully, and Kano spluttered, horrified by his candor.

"There— there was mistletoe," he hurried to say, pointing up, and both of them looked upwards. Seto made a noise of surprise, as if he hadn't known it was there before.

What _had _he thought, then, when Kano had asked him for a kiss?

He couldn't mull that startling thought over, though, because Kido's gaze had flickered back down to his face. She looked, if possible, more unimpressed than before.

"Kano, that's not mistletoe. That's holly."

Kano felt as though the floor had suddenly dropped out under him. He floundered. "But— but the berries!"

"Holly has red berries. Mistletoe has white." Kido was looking at him as if trying to figure out if he really didn't know the difference between holly and mistletoe, or if he was just faking ignorance to seduce Poor Innocent Seto. Kano was seriously tempted to start pretending to be doing the second option, just to save face.

"Did you really think I'd put mistletoe up in the apartment with someone like you around?" Kido asked, and he couldn't even manage to be indignant. It did make much more sense this way; almost all of it made more sense, save for Seto's exuberance regarding the kiss itself.

Speaking of which—

"I don't mind," Seto remarked suddenly, and Kano was reminded all over again that he still had yet to let go of him. Maybe he'd just forgotten. "It was a mistake, but it had a good outcome. Right, Kano?"

Faced with such optimism, Kano could only reply weakly, "Uh, sure."

Kido looked at the both of them for a second longer before turning to leave. "I have some errands to run. Seto, Mary asked if you could fix the part of her paper chain that fell down. She couldn't reach it this morning."

Sure enough, one side of the paper chain was dangling sadly, and Seto nodded. Kido continued. "I'll be out for an hour or so. Don't be doing… whatever it is you're doing when I get back."

And then she was gone. A silence stretched on for several seconds following the sound of her shutting the door, until Kano finally broke it.

"Ahh, sorry for getting you mixed up in that," he said with a laugh, trying to keep the apology as lighthearted as possible. It was too late to play it off as a prank, but he wished he could go ahead and do so anyway. It would be better than the cringing embarrassment he felt right about now.

It was hard to look Seto in the eye, and it wasn't until he started to laugh that Kano's eyes snapped back up to his face. He was shocked to find that Seto was grinning.

"I don't mind at all," Seto replied, "An' I wouldn't mind doing it again. But if you really need mistletoe for an excuse, I know a spot where some grows. If you want, I could go get it."

_Oh,_ Kano thought. _ So even Seto knows what mistletoe actually looks like. Great._

"No," he replied faintly, "That won't be necessary."

He hadn't quite realized the implications of what he'd said— or what Seto had said for that matter— so when Seto's hand left his waist to tilt his chin up a bit, he just blinked up at him in confusion.

"No excuse needed?" Seto asked, double checking, and Kano's face went red, everything falling into place.

It would be easy to push him away, to laugh it off and go find something else to do, in hopes of forgetting his own embarrassing blunder. But, Kano realized, he didn't really want to do any of those things.

Kano found his smirk again, tilting his head to the side. "Nah. No excuse needed," he repeated, and Seto beamed and leaned down to continue where they'd left off.

Kido wouldn't be home for another hour, after all.


End file.
